Break a string into parts, returning all characters

Question

I want to break a string according to the following rules:

1. all consecutive alpha-numeric chars, plus the dot (.) must be treated as one part
2. all other consecutive chars must be treated as one part
3. consecutive combinations of 1 and 2 must be treated as different parts
4. no whitespace must be returned

For example this string:

Method(hierarchy.of.properties) = ?

Should return this array:

Array
(
    [0] => Method
    [1] => (
    [2] => hierarchy.of.properties
    [3] => )
    [4] => =
    [5] => ?
)

I was unsuccessful with preg_split(), as AFAIK it cannot treat the pattern as an element to be returned.

Any idea for a simple way to do this?

Answer 1

You probably should use preg_match_all over preg_split.

preg_match_all('/[\w|\.]+|[^\w\s]+/', $string, $matches);
print_r($matches);

Output:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => Method
            [1] => (
            [2] => hierarchy.of.properties
            [3] => )
            [4] => =
            [5] => ?
        )

)

Answer 2

This should do what you want:

$matches = array();
$string = "Method(hierarchy.of.properties) = ?";
foreach(preg_split('/(12|[^a-zA-Z0-9.])/', $string, 0, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE | PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY) as $match) {
    if (trim($match) != '')
        $matches[] = $match;
}

I used a loop to remove all whitespace matches, since as far as I know there isn't a feature in preg_split() to that for you.